How to search for a patient (If your eMHA is integrated with Rio/PDS)

How to search for a patient (If your eMHA is integrated with Rio/PDS)

Info

This guide is relevant if your eMHA is integrated with Rio/PDS.

 If you have an integration with Rio and need to start a form, you should access the patient record and click through to eMHA. If your version of eMHA is connected to PDS (The Spine) then you should search by NHS Number.

 You can search for a patient to:

  • Start a form 

  • See any forms in progress, completed forms, and the person's MHA status.


You can search for all patients across your trust who have had a form created on eMHA.

Depending on your organisation’s data-sharing agreement, you might have access to patients outside your team (e.g. across your ICS, or across London).  


eMHA is integrated with The Personal Demographics Service (PDS), meaning eMHA can now check PDS if a patient isn’t in a trust's RIO instance.


On eMHA, fuzzy search will be automatically enabled when you search for a patient. This means you do not have to have exact spelling to return a match, or search results will show you a name with a similar spelling or that sounds the same.

To search for a patient:

  1. Go to  ‘SEARCH PATIENT’ on the left-hand navigation screen. 
  2. Start by typing the NHS number of the patient you are attempting to find.

  3. If the NHS number is unknown, click ‘SEARCH BY DEMOGRAPHICS’ and type in the known patient information.

  4. Fuzzy search or ‘Phonetic/Soundex Match’ will be automatically enabled.

  5. This option will return results where the search term specified sounds like the patient’s name, and also when the spelling is not an exact match but similar.

  6. You will need to enter a surname and a DOB as a minimum. If you do not know the DOB you can enter an approximate age or unknown.

  7. Click ‘SEARCH’. 

  8. If more than 10 patients are returned, an ‘ERROR MESSAGE’ will be shown to you telling you to narrow your search

  9. You will need to narrow your search by adding in more information e.g. DOB, exact age or Disable phonetic match if you know the exact spelling of the name.

  10. If no patient is found searching across eMHA, you will have the option to ‘SEARCH PDS’.

  11. You will need to enter the patient's forename, surname, postcode, and DOB if known.

  12. Once you are shown a list of patients or patient, you will need to select the correct patient and click ‘CONTINUE’.  

  13. If this is not the correct patient, or you would like to search again, click ‘CLEAR SEARCH' and perform a new search. 

  14. If there is no patient match, you can create a patient by clicking the create patient button.

  15. Once you have selected the correct patient, you can start a form. You can also see any in-progress forms on eMHA or any form previously completed for the patient on eMHA by someone in your organisation, and you will also see the MHA status.